


Close (to something better left unknown)

by DarlingNikki



Series: Touched [6]
Category: From Dusk Till Dawn: The Series
Genre: Back to Hell, F/M, Morning After, TV News
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-18
Updated: 2015-05-18
Packaged: 2018-03-31 02:19:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,669
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3960694
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DarlingNikki/pseuds/DarlingNikki
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kate and Seth finally make it back to the Titty Twister.<br/>Kate realizes several things, some good some bad, and she dreams again.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Close (to something better left unknown)

**Author's Note:**

> Title is from Metric's song "Gimme Sympathy."  
> I'm still plodding along! I just like writing this, it's fun, and kinda is wish fufillment for me, since I know season two will be nothing like this.  
> Seriously though, everyone that reads this and gives kudos and reviews, you freaking rock. I show them to the hubby and he laughs at how excited I get over them.

The light coming through the cracks in the curtains is even brighter now.  Kate groans and tries to roll away from it, but the arms wrapped around her waist might as well be steel bands for all the give they have.  She blinks, opening her eyes, and sees the stylized version of flames that she knows decorates Seth's arms, and then she remembers what happened earlier this morning.  Seth's tentative kisses, and then her pulling him close and taking control in a way she'd never done before.  
She doesn't blush.  
She smiles at the memory, of how gentle, how safe it had been.  How good it had felt.  Kate had almost forgot what desire actually felt like in the mad scramble to rearrange her life after the disaster that cost her everything she'd even known.  If that is what a sin is, Kate hopes God will forgive her, but she can't regret it.  
Once upon a time, in a different life she would have looked down at a woman doing what she's done.  Sleeping with older men, criminals, brothers even, but now she thinks that there is grace even in it.  Something that makes her smile, like this memory does, is something to cherish.  
Kate touches Seth's arms, shaking them, trying to pull him out of sleep, even if it's the first peaceful sleep she's seen him have.  They have work to do.  Today's the day.  Today she'll stop dragging her feet, today they are going back to the Titty Twister.  
Seth finally starts to stir, and Kate wiggles in his arms so she can face him.  His eyes open, and just like Richie said, eyes find eyes.  His eyes are hooded and Kate can't quite make out the expression on his face, but maybe that's okay too.  She doesn't need to know every single facet of his emotions, to know that he's vulnerable and probably feeling the guilt that she's not for earlier this morning.  He was always closest to his brother, and she's sure that this feels like a betrayal to him.  She'll find a way to convince him.  It's not.    
It can't be.  Kate thinks of Richie.  Kate's always thinking of Richie in the back of her mind, this is not a secret, but she doesn't think that Richie would actually be upset to see how much she cares about his brother.  He might even be glad if he knew that she was here to watch out for Seth when Richie himself couldn't.    
Kate does know she needs to pull Seth out of his head.  She's honestly surprised that he hasn't pulled away from her yet and thrown up a mental wall between them.  "Hey, sleepyhead," she tilts her head up and dryly kisses the edge of his mouth.  "Time to get rambling."  She pulls away, and his arms tighten around her for a brief second before letting her go.  She slides out of the bed, heading for the bathroom.  "You pack up, and I'll be ready to go soon."  
She strides into the bathroom, and closes the door behind her.  She splashes water in her face, and uses the cleanest towel she can find to wipe it off.  She looks up, at herself into the mirror.  
She doesn't look like the naive girl that snuck out one night to escape the tomb her home had become.  She also doesn't look like the girl on the cusp of growing up, so very angry at her father for the things he wouldn't tell her.  She looks like a woman, not a girl.  Her eyes are knowing and older than her face, she has seen the worst the world can offer, and somehow managed to come out of it, maybe a little broken, but still standing.  
Kate likes what she sees when she looks into the mirror now.  
She strides out of the bathroom, dressed, and ready to face the world.

 

* * *

  
They really did stop close, it only takes them another hour of driving to pull into the parking lot.  Everything looks the same at the Titty Twister.  Her family's RV is even still parked in the same place.  It's strange, pulling up is the same view she saw when they left, like it's a moment trapped in amber.  
Kate can do this though.  She opens her car door and gets out.  She surveys it to see if it really is the exact same, before she pulls out her gun and holds it loosely ready to step back into the breach.  "Seth, you ready?"  
He smirks at her, bravado firmly in place, "You know it.  Baby girl, you sure you're ready for this?"  
"I just hope we find something."  She's not hoping for more murderous vampires, but it'd be nice to find something to help them find Santanico.  That fucking bitch deserved this place, and Kate almost feels bad for calling a woman a bitch, her momma would probably be rolling in her grave if she could read Kate's thoughts, but you know, if the shoe fits, and in this case it definitely does.  They just need to find something, anything, to point them where to go from here, because right now they're just aimlessly drifting.  
The doors are still open, and walking in makes Kate grip her gun tighter and grit her teeth.  She really doesn't want to go back in here, but she really doesn't have any other options, because she's sure as hell not going to let Seth go in alone.  He doesn't know how to survive without someone to watch his back, and Richie's not here, so that job is now hers.    
There's piles of dust on the floor, and the shattered remains of the interior litter the floor, and Kate follows behind Seth as he picks his way through the debris.  The main room doesn't look promising, and Kate's hoping they won't have to go through to the labyrinth again, she's not sure that she's ready for that.  Instead they walk to the backstage area, and she looks around at the piles of feather boas and g-strings, and yeah, there's a ton of cheap ass body glitter sitting prominently on the vanities scattered around the room.  She spots a tapestry that doesn't match again the far wall, "Hey Seth?  Does that look out of place to you?"  She points to it, and he strides over and tugs at it.  
"Yep, good eye," he drops the fabric, and a door is revealed.  He pulls it open, and a set of stairs leading down into the dark is revealed.  "One way to go, you okay babydoll?"  
It takes a second for Kate to find her voice, "Yeah, I'm good."  She peers down at the darkness, "Let's go."  They carefully pick their way down the stairs, and it seems to take an extremely long time to reach the bottom, but also no time at all.  Kate doesn't have the words to describe walking down there, an oppressive feeling pressing against her chest, making her want to turn around.  She won't though.  
When they reach the bottom, they stop and look around the room, it looks like a woman's room.  There's a vanity against the wall, and off to another side of the room a massive, old style bathtub is set up.  The smell seems to hit her in the face, sweet and cloying, and rotten.  They walk closer to the bathtub, and they can see what the smell is coming from.  The inside of the tub is brown, and congealed and around the edges there are rust colored flakes.  It takes a second for Kate to realize what she's seeing.  
It's blood.  
That tub had been filled with blood, left behind, she assumes, from the night they left the bar.  She retches, and steps back, looking around the room again.  She can see that stupid feathery cloak hanging on a peg.  This room must be Santanico's.   
She walks over to the vanity, and starts to toss open drawers, looking for anything useful, but all she sees is makeup, and jewelry strewn carelessly on the surface.  "Nothing here.  Seth, you seeing anything?"  
He doesn't answer her, so Kate turns and finds him.  He's standing still, so very still staring at a brown spot on the floor.  His eyes are wide, and his hands shake, as he stares mesmerized by that spot.    
Kate walks over, and he doesn't move.  "Seth?"    
He starts, and looks over at her, and he looks spooked.  He looks back down at the spot, and Kate follows his eyes.  Now that she's closer, she can tell what the spot is.  It's blood, of course it's blood, it's always blood here.  She shouldn't be surprised.  
"Kate," Seth's voice is reedy, and doesn't sound like himself.  Doesn't sound like himself, at all, she's so used to cocky self-confidence, but this sounds like a voice on the verge of cracking.  "Kate, I think this might be Richie's."  
The bloodstain screams at her, and if she closes her eyes she can probably picture him laying here, picture him dying as his lung collapses from the bullet that went straight through his chest.  She blinks to clear the picture out of her mind, and looks away.  She looks anywhere in the room, anywhere but there.    
Her eyes go back to the jewelry.  Most of it looks too nice to be in this room.  It sparkles in a way that makes her think, maybe we can use this, and she doesn't see anything else worthwhile.  A spot she won't think about, a bathtub of horrors, but the jewelry is something practical she can focus on.  They're low on money.  Seth would probably know how to get some cash for it, probably not what it's worth, but anything helps, and she cannot stay in this place much longer.  There's a feeling in the back of her skull, that pressing darkness, a language she doesn't speak whispering to her, and she just can't stay here much longer.  She holsters her gun and grabs a purse, and starts to shove the jewelry into it.  Once the drawers and vanity are emptied out, she grabs Seth's hand and pulls.  She's not strong enough to actually make him move if he didn't want to, but he follows in her wake easily enough.  
The way back up the steps seems much easier than walking down them did.  It's strange, but Kate doesn't question it, as they make it back through the bar area, and then out the doors back into the sunlight.  
Kate takes a deep breath and looks back at Seth.  He's blinking at the sun, and the emptiness she saw down there seems to slowly recede.  "I don't think it's safe to go any further."  She looks around at the cars, and the building squatting in the desert, and it doesn't look anywhere near as sinister as it should.  It just looks like a run down bar from the outside, but inside there is still something evil right down to the foundations.  She looks at the surrounding landscape, and walks to the side of the building.  It's huge.  She starts to walk along the side of the building, and then Kate sees.  There's a pit.  She reaches the edge and looks down, it takes her a minute to process the devastation in front of her.  There are piles of twisted and burned out cars piled into the pit.  If she squints she can see under the newer wreckage, there are older models of cars underneath.  There are hundreds of cars down there.  "Seth," she whispers, then realizing how quiet it came out, she calls louder, "Seth, you've gotta see this."    
He comes running around the corner, and Kate can't pull her eyes away from the decades of devastation lain bare before her.  "Katiecakes, you okay?"  
"Look."  
He looks down at what she sees.  "Shit."    
"Yeah, shit indeed."  Kate laughs darkly.  "They were at this a long time."  
"Do you see what this building is?"  
Kate focuses on the building, looking away from the cars, down at the carved steps of a temple, like the ancient Aztecs built shown in the history books at school.  "This is a temple?"  She looks at Seth, "They were at this for a very long time, weren't they?  Not just decades, but longer."  
"Yeah, Katiecakes, much longer."  
"I want to leave."  
"Let's go then."

 

* * *

  
Another hotel room.  
They all blend together for Kate.  She's laying in bed idly flipping through the channels looking for something to focus on.  Seth's out with the jewelry she grabbed, fencing it for quick cash.    
She sees a face, that looks familiar.  She stops flipping the channels.  It's a news program.  The picture changes, and it's again familiar.  Kate looks, and what the newscaster is saying sends a cold chill down her spine.  Another picture, and it's like looking through a funhouse mirror.    
Each face looks like her.    
The eye color is usually different, but the girls shown all look like her.  
The newscaster is listing names, and the screen changes again to show pictures of ten different girls, each pretty and young with straight dark hair and creamy pale skin, all dead.  All dead with ravaged throats.  All left in a trail that leads from the Mexican border into further into the US, into Texas.    
It's a message.  
She watches, and waits for Seth to get back.

 

* * *

  
Seth walks back in with a grin, and slaps a stack of bills on the table.  "We are eating well tonight, girl.  What do you want?  We could even get steaks!"  He seems pleased.    
Kate sits up and turns to look at him.  "I know where Richie is."  
"Wait, what?"  
"They're making their way up Texas."  
Seth looks at her incredulously, "And how do you know that?  Had another dream?"  
Kate winces, "No.  I was watching the news."  She swallows.  "There's ten dead girls that look like me, starting at the border and going through Texas."  
"Fuck."  Seth sits down next to her, and slings an arm around her shoulders pulling her close to him.  
Kate's breath hitches, and she sags against him.  "They look just like me."  She starts sobbing, and clings to Seth.  "We need to stop this."  
"We will."  
Seth pulls her down, and wraps his arms around her, and Kate falls asleep with tears drying sticky on her face.

 

* * *

  
She dreams.  
Of course she dreams.  
She's back at the pool, but she can see bodies floating face up in the pool.  They all look like her, and they're all wearing the same multicolored bikini that she's wearing.  
She looks away from the pool at the chair next to her.  Richie's sitting there looking at her.  He doesn't look like a monster to Kate, even though she knows that all those dead girls are there because of him.  
"She really hates you, you know."  
It takes a second for the words to parse.  "Santanico did this?"  
"No, I did this, but she brought them to me."  
"How does that make it any better, Richie?"  
He shrugs, offers her a cigarette.  "It really doesn't.  I've gotta eat; it's my nature."  She doesn't take a cigarette.  "I wouldn't have chosen them, but I still killed them."  
Kate looks at the dead girls floating in the water, and she can see the water is dyed red with blood.  She doesn't have the words for this.  There's a numb horror at her core.  All these dead girls, and their only crime, was that they resembled her.  
She focuses back on Richie's face, "If we come, will you help me?"  She gestures at the bodies, "The only way I'm going to be safe is if she's gone."  
Richie looks pained at that.  "I don't know if I can."

 

* * *

  
Kate gasps as she wakes.  
Seth's arms tighten around her, and she closes her eyes again.  
Sleep now, she can think about what to do later.  
She's scared that Richie can't be saved.

 

* * *

  
Richie wakes.  
He doesn't gasp.  
He's waiting.

**Author's Note:**

> Pinkglitterygoth.tumblr.com   
> I'm not the most active, mainly out of laziness.


End file.
